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I've just obtained a SATA to dual mSATA adapter which I've installed into my Dell Inspiron laptop.

Having just re-installed Windows 10 onto one of the disks, I'm now wanting to split partition the second disk and install Ubuntu and Fedora onto each of these partitions.

When in Windows, I am only able to see one of the drives - the other one doesn't appear to exist. When checking Computer Manager under the Disk Management section, the second disk isn't listed their either.

I've installed the JMicron software which came with this adapter and the software is able to correctly identify both disks.

The question is: can the dual mSATA drives work in this scenario? Should they be detected by Windows 10 or is it dependent on the underlying motherboard? i.e. will the Dell laptop most likely not support this configuration?

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  • Please provide the exact make and model (or, preferably, a link) of the “SATA to Dual mSATA Adapter”. It sounds like there’s a catch. While SATA expanders are possible, the HBA needs to support it. I also believe this isn’t an expander at all but some sort of semi-fraud.
    – Daniel B
    Mar 4, 2018 at 19:16
  • @DanielB Thanks for your comment. The make is an IOCrest SD-ADA40107, featuring a JMicron JMS562 controller chip. All seems pretty legit as now when its connected via USB, both drives appear as one would expect. The laptop is an Inspiron 5758 if that makes a difference
    – weblar83
    Mar 4, 2018 at 19:24
  • Update your question...
    – Ramhound
    Mar 4, 2018 at 22:51

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Wow, it appears this adapter can indeed function as a SATA Port Multiplier. However, support for Port Multipliers is rarely present in consumer-grade SATA HBAs.

Apparently, the Intel ICH and PCH SATA controllers do not support Port Multipliers, at least on Windows. As such, this device cannot work with your notebook, except in RAID mode.

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  • Thanks, I had feared that this would be the case. Given that one of the drive boots into Windows, do you think there would be a small chance that if I could somehow get Ubuntu/Fedora to install to the second disk, it may work? Obviously if the Intel SATA controller doesn't support this then I'm goosed from the go! Thanks again
    – weblar83
    Mar 4, 2018 at 19:40
  • Just start some Live Linux and you’ll see right away whether it detects the second drive. It could work. To get a real installation to boot, you might have to place the /boot partition on the first drive.
    – Daniel B
    Mar 4, 2018 at 19:47
  • Ok, will give the Live CD thing a go and see what happens. If it doesn't work, ah well, it would have been a nice solution. Thanks for your help
    – weblar83
    Mar 4, 2018 at 20:14
  • Nope, no dice - Linux recognises ‘/dev/sda’ as the first drive but no secondary device is present. Darn it.
    – weblar83
    Mar 4, 2018 at 21:12

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